Grinhill III - "Supercommuter" featuring Recumpence RC drive

[paultrafalgar]

Is there any mileage in standardizing on the size of square tubing used in the KMX trike? It might have advantages for people making stuff to retrofit KMX trikes. What do you think?

[Grinhill]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Matt, do you have that measurement?

[johnrobholmes]

Matt told me the seat clamps are standard, so I bets the frame tubing is standard as well.

[recumpence]

KMX frame tubing is 1.7 inch square.

Matt

[AussieJester]

Hey Grinhill whats happening buddy need update fix mate

KiM

[recumpence]

I can give an update from my end.

I just recieved the final items for his kit (he ordered some extra goodies from me).

I am at the shop Wedesday. So, his order will ship in full then...............

Matt

[AussieJester]

Ahhhhhh no worries then, i shall sit back and patiently
wait, I love watching DIY projects and there are so few happening here on ES at the moment
i thought Grinhill must be lounging at the beach enjoying the superb weather we are having here
at the moment so thought a 'kindly' hurry up might get him off the beach and back into the workshop hehehe ...

You must be soooo busy ATM Matt does your poor family ever get too see e you?!

KiM

[recumpence]

My family sees me alot, actually. We home-school our kids and I am self employed. So, I stop at home often to say hello. Plus I bring my one son to the shop occasionally. Besides that, we watch no TV what-so-ever. We do have a flat screen, but that is for our DVD player only and we rarely put in movies. So, we have lots of family time together.

The problem I have is too many things coming up at the same time. Right now I have 3 drive unit orders, two 20hp Typhoons I am building for customers, one more 20hp Typhoon for myself, one customer recumbent at the shop that I am converting, my Catrike 700 I am working on, and I am developing other products (Catrike frame braces, updated high output drive units, etc).

So, yes, I am a bit busy at the moment.

Matt

[Grinhill]

Matt,
Thanks for the update, sounds like e-bike stuff is really taking off for you, which is great.
BTW, do you have any photos of your new aluminium battery box?

Hey Kim,
Don't worry, I'm still scribbling lots of ideas down, but not much fabricating just yet. I'm having trouble visualising the drive in 3-D, so I don't want to make something and find it doesn't fit when I get the drive in my my hand.

In the meantime, it's good to see all the progress on the dual-freewheels-on-freehub thread.

[AussieJester]

Sounds like you have a idyllic lifestyle there Matt Kudos too you mate

Know what yoiu mean there Grinhill good to have the unit in your hand makes it 10 times easier to visual
a plan of attack IMO

Battery Enclosure no pics of it hasn't started yet sticll a sketch, i did make mounts for it today, shall make a card board template tomorrow pick up aluminium maybe even tomorrow if not Thursday i also need to look up for local fibreglass supplier unsure if the one i have used in the past is still there i haven't done any fibreglass work for few years now.

Anywayz, look forward to seeing progress in the near future buddy best of luck..

KiM

[Grinhill]

I'm overdue for an update here.

My package from Matt arrived last week, so I'm into it again. Goodies include an Astro 3210 installed in the drive, freewheel adapter, ISO to 130BCD adapter and Fechter box (Fechbox???). Thanks very much again to everyone who contributed to this and voted for my entry.

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I test fitted the Dicta freewheel on the output adapter, this will work best in a left-hand drive setup otherwise the freewheel may spin off. Right hand drive system will have the freewheel on the driven sprocket.

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First impressions are that this is indeed a beautiful piece of work, and solid as a rock! I will definitely need to get the rack as rigid as possible, and will probably make it stronger than I first had in mind. Tips the (kitchen ) scales at around 2.1 kg (4 1/2 pounds).

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[recumpence]

Looks good!

For right side drive, you will need a flanged freewheel (WI freewheel) and a modded FW adaptor.

Matt

[AussieJester]

mmmm CNC goodness good to see the project is moving on again mate
those Astros are a short motor aint they!

best of luck

KiM

[Grinhill]

Hmmm...must be time for an update, this thread was now on page 2 of my own posts. (thanks for the bump Matt)

It's coming up for two months since I have done any work on this project, mostly due to busy work/family/holiday life, but all is good.

The Grinhill 2 has been working reliably as daily transport (dry weather only), and I have decided to leave it as is for now. This means I must find another bike to build.

In order to set up the geometry, I decided to do a prototype in steel before moving on to aluminium.

Before Christmas, I dragged out the stick welder (inspired by Aussiejester ). Unfortunately my automatic helmet had stopped working, so this was done one-handed with a hand-held mask (yes I know thats a lame excuse for some very ugly welds!)

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On the electrics side, I have some new LiPo but haven't built the packs yet. Hopefully the new GGoodrum boards will be available soon, he seems to have sold out of the old ones. I have also ordered a Meanwell 350W Power supply to do the charging.

[AussieJester]

Hmmm...must be time for an update,

YA THINK! hehehe...good too see you back on track matey

Before Christmas, I dragged out the stick welder (inspired by Aussiejester ). Unfortunately my automatic helmet had stopped working, so this was done one-handed with a hand-held mask (yes I know thats a lame excuse for some very ugly welds!)

Stick + thin tube=much harder than MIG buddy, you have done well there...FLAP disks are you friend now and noooobody will ever know they werent visually appealing to start with

On the electrics side, I have some new LiPo but haven't built the packs yet. Hopefully the new GGoodrum boards will be available soon, he seems to have sold out of the old ones. .

AGH...so he is I thought the new boards he was making were the balancers only and the LVC boards
were still going to be used...? They are fantastic lil board makes a Lipo pack possible for
even an electricity challenged retard like me hahaa...

Hop to it now mate we want Videos ASAP of you tearing up the neighbourhood!!!

Best of luck mate, great to see you back

KiM

[recumpence]

Good to see the progress.

I love welding. For me, it quickly became addicting!

Matt

[AussieJester]

I love welding. For me, it quickly became addicting!

DC Inverter TIGS are getting ridiculously cheap these days, i been doing a lil research last few days both the Weldsmart and Alltrax models
get a pretty good rap, Transformer welders are old and outdated, inverters is the new trend. WeldSmart even have a local store to me! 595 for 160amp DC TIG...Better again Welders Direct 500 bucks 200amp DC pulse TIG for 500 even 24 delivery to me... OK so they can't do aluminium but for 500 bucks nice neat welds in steel, stainless and chrom is possible...guess what im getting next Mr R

KiM

[recumpence]

Did you catch my earlier post?

I have a customer with a Miller liquid cooled aluminum TIG I am getting (swapping for some work).

I will be fully setup soon!

Oh, we have a huge CNC lathe coming tomorrow (my landlord has it coming). We may soon be manufacturing finned motor cans and other bits.

Anyway, sorry for clogging up Grin's thread.

Back on topic!

Matt

[EVTodd]

Any updates on this project yet?

[Grinhill]

I'm still chipping away, Todd, but don't get much time to spend on it these days, only a few hours each weekend.

Here's an update on my battery pack parallel connectors (first mentioned here: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=16219&p=239742&hilit=+bus+bar#p239742 )

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With a bit of dremel work, I got the red sleeves to fit over which is great for preventing shorts.

Also made a balance parallel connector from a piece of veroboard:

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I discovered that my proposed drive mounting position will have chain clearance issues, so I need to push it further back on the rack.

As an alternative, I decided to make use of some kerbside-find bikes, and am now doing a mount for the back of a BMX. This is made from a cut-up frame, which has a 1.5" tube. This will let me mount the drive easily using Matt's custom made drive mounts for round tube. This will also allow me to keep my daily ride on the road while sorting out the new drive.

Here's a mockup, note the rear 53-tooth sprocket is held on by cable ties at present, but there's plenty more room for chain with this setup than I had on the MTB.

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[AussieJester]

Personally i have to say i'm a Lil disappointing not too see the original planned rack used Grinhil.

KiM

[Grinhill]

Don't worry, still gonna happen, Kim!

This one's just a 3D model to get things sorted like chain location, wiring loom lengths etc, then can all be transplanted to nice aluminium rack.

I still haven't found the right aluminium yet, there are a few fabrication places near where I work, will try and get access to their scrap bins at some stage.

[AussieJester]

Its taken you 7 months to find 'the right' aluminium? tell me EXACTLY what you need ill send it to you free of charge
i want to see this project up and running buddy, i have good suppliers 10 minutes down the road from me.


KiM

[Grinhill]

Thanks Kim, the main tube is still on the scrounging list, which would ideally be 40 x 40 x 3mm square tube say 400mm length. I have no use for the other 5 1/2 m of a length which is why I am balking at buying it off the shelf - if you can find such a small piece, I will gladly pay for any costs to send it over.

All my other ali is lightweight angle and mouldings 1.5mm, 3mm etc, so I would also like some offcuts in 5 or 6mm thickness for making brackety bits, even chunky 10mm stuff would be handy.

The ali seems to take me 3 times as long to cut and shape as the steel, I only want to do it in ali once.

(the main missing ingredient for me at present is SPARE TIME )

[AussieJester]

Having to buy by the length is a bitch all the steel tubing i use for frames is by the length sometimes they
will do half lengths, 6meters is usually the norm though..I shall see what i can do later today and get back to you.
I have no doubt i can get it whether its in that short length is another story... :: fingers crossed ::

KiM